KIRKUS REVIEW

Eager to prove himself, an Alaska
Native child helps his father free a baby whale from a net, then stows away to
join an expedition to a distant village.

Peratrovich bases his tale on an
event from his Tlingit grandfather’s youth, preceding the narrative with a
glossary and introductory descriptions of the Tlingit moiety system and village
life that both are generalized and include some contradictory information. In
the story proper, when 10-year-old Kéet goes fishing for cháatl (halibut) with his father, he cuts a yáay (whale—the exact species is not indicated) from a floating net
made of strange materials, probably by the “pale people.” The following day, he
stows away aboard one of a fleet of canoes
dispatched to another village in the wake of an unspecified “wrong” to a clan
member. The whales reciprocate the earlier good deed by helping the canoes
through a storm. Discovered, Kéet gets a long lecture from his father—who then
goes on to face a hostile reception at their destination and settle the dispute
not with violence but with talk and ceremonial exchange of gifts. In a
concluding note, the author confides that the whale encounters are his own
invention and never does get around to explaining what made the titular canoe
the “last” one. A spare handful of murky illustrations offer at best hazy
impressions of what that canoe, ceremonial headgear, and longhouse village looked
like.

Stronger at conveying a sense of
Tlingit life than at spinning a tale that will appeal to general audiences.
(map) (Historical fiction. 9-11)

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